Trauma

Introduction 

Welcome to Dubbo! 

We are a busy rural referral hospital servicing the northern sector of the Western NSW LHD. Dubbo hospital is the base hospital for 24 peripheral sites which can range from 30 mins to 5 hours away by road. 

We see on average 5 major traumas (ISS > 12) per month with 1/3 of our major traumas transferred to our tertiary referral hospital Westmead. 

We see every type of trauma that you might see in the major trauma hospitals in addition to the complexity of moving severely injured patient’s large distances.

 The role of regional trauma service is to provide all aspects of immediate care, including some definitive care for non-major trauma patients according to patient needs and available resources. 

Most importantly, with our location 400km from Sydney it’s crucial we are able to provide the initial assessment and early stabilisation of major trauma patients requiring transfer to a major trauma service. 

I hope you enjoy your time in Dubbo and thank your in advance for your help looking after trauma patients in the central West of NSW. If you have any questions or issues related to trauma please feel free to contact me. 

Simon Heppell

Director of Trauma, Dubbo Health Service

Dubbo Trauma Morbidity and Mortality Meeting

We hold a quarterly morbidity and mortality meeting which is an open invite where we discuss difficult or challenging cases in order to generate actionable learning and system improvement.